Pontifical university and athenaeum
A pontifical university or athenaeum is an ecclesiastical university established or approved directly by the Holy See, composed of three main ecclesiastical faculties and at least one other faculty. According to the apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium, an institution with four ecclesiastical faculties is canonically erected as an Pontifical university, while one with three ecclesiastical faculties is erected as an Pontifical athenaeum. These academic institutes deal specifically with Christian philosophy and related disciplines, and the Church's mission of spreading the Gospel, as proclaimed in the apostolic constitution Sapientia ''christiana. As of 2018, they are governed by the apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium'' issued by Pope Francis on 8 December 2017.
Academic structure
Pontifical universities follow a European system of study hour calculation, granting the baccalaureate, the licentiate, and the ecclesiastical doctorate. These ecclesiastical degrees are prerequisites to certain offices in the Roman Catholic Church, especially considering that bishop candidates are selected mainly from priests who are doctors of sacred theology or canon law and that ecclesiastical judges and canon lawyers must have at least the Licentiate of Canon Law.In 2003, the Holy See took part in the Bologna Process, a series of meetings and agreements between European states designed to foster comparable quality standards in higher education, and in the "Bologna Follow-up Group". Pope Benedict XVI established the Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties, an attempt to promote and develop a culture of quality within the ecclesiastical institutions and enable them to aim in developing internationally valid quality criteria.
Compared to secular universities, which are academic institutions for the study and teaching of a broad range of disciplines, ecclesiastical or pontifical universities are "usually composed of three principal ecclesiastical faculties, theology, philosophy, and canon law, and at least one other faculty. A pontifical university specifically addresses Christian revelation and disciplines correlative to the evangelical mission of the Church as set out in the apostolic constitution Sapientia christiana.
List of pontifical universities
Argentina- Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, Buenos Aires
Bolivia
Brazil
- Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Campinas
- Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, Goiânia
- Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte
- Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo
- Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Curitiba
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre
- Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto
- Regis College, Toronto
- Saint Paul University, Ottawa
- Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago
- Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Valparaíso
- Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín
- Pontifical Xavierian University, Bogotá
- Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santo Domingo, Santiago de Los Caballeros, and Puerto Plata.
France
- Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris
- Institut Catholique de Toulouse, Toulouse
- Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt & Ingolstadt
- Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City
Ireland
- St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Maynooth; Pontifical University charter 1896
- Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm, Rome
- Pontifical Athenaeum Queen of the Apostles, Rome
- Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
- Pontifical Lateran University, Rome
- Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome
- Pontifical University of St. Anthony, Rome
- Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome
- Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome
- Salesian Pontifical University, Rome
Kenya
Lebanon
- Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Kaslik
- Saint Joseph University, Beirut
Montenegro
- Pontifical Catholic University of Montenegro, Kotor
- Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua, Panama City
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
- Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon
Spain
- Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid
- Pontifical University of Salamanca, Salamanca & Madrid
- University of Navarra, Pamplona
- Superior Institute of Religious Sciences of St. Thomas Aquinas, Kyiv; since 1992. An institution of higher education in Kyiv, conducted by the Dominican Friars of the Vicariate General of Ukraine and affiliated to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
- Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
- Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico
- Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio
- Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology, Mundelein, IL
- Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, Berkeley, CA
- St. Mary's Seminary and University, Baltimore, MD
- Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga, Montevideo
Former pontifical universities
- Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, until the German Reformation in 1518
- Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany, until the German Reformation in 1518
- Lund Studium Generale, Lund, Sweden, until the Danish Reformation
- Royal and Pontifical University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina, until 1856, during the presidency of Justo José de Urquiza
- Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, until the Mexican War of Independence
- Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, until the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870.
- Universidad Católica de Santo Tomás de Villanueva, Havana, Cuba, until its closure in 1961, after the Cuban Revolution
- Universidad de San Ignacio, Manila, Philippines, until 1768, after the Expulsion of the Jesuits
- Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, until 1823, during the Unification of Hispaniola
- University of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen, Scotland, until the Scottish Reformation
- University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, until the English Reformation
- University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, until the French Revolutionary Wars
- University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, until the Danish Reformation
- University of Erfurt, until the German Reformation
- University of Freiburg, until the suppression of the Society of Jesus
- University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, until the Scottish Reformation
- University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany, until the German Reformation
- University of Mainz, until the French Revolutionary Wars
- University of Oxford, Oxford, England, until the English Reformation
- University of Paris, Paris, France, until the French Revolution in 1793
- University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany, until the German Reformation
- University of Saint Andrews, Saint Andrews, Scotland, until the Scottish Reformation
- University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru, until the Peruvian War of Independence
- University of Tübingen, until the German Reformation
- University of Wittenberg, until the German Reformation
- University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, until the Napoleonic Wars
- Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, until the Swedish Reformation
- Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin, Ireland. Pontifical Athenaeum
- Heythrop College, University of London; Bellarmine Institute, London, United Kingdom, until the closure of the college in 2018, when the Pontifical faculty was transferred to St Mary's University, Twickenham, becoming Mater Ecclesiae College.
- Pontifical College of Saint Pius X of Đà Lạt, Đà Lạt, Việt Nam; officially closed in 1977 after the Fall of Saigon, confiscated by the government in 1980
Pontifical faculties
- Pontifical Faculty of Philosophy and Theology, Heiligenkreuz Abbey, Heiligenkreuz
- Theological Faculty, Catholic-Theological Private University Linz, Linz
- Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano, Lugano
- Marianum Theological Faculty, Rome
- Pontifical Faculty at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL
- Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC
- School of Theology and Religious Studies, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
- Wedabhakti Pontifical Faculty of Theology, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta